The Complete BAFTA #BreakthroughBrits Q&A with Ray Panthaki

Chief among the excellent work done by BAFTA are the myriad resources and support they offer to up-and-coming talent in the creative industries. Using their impressive archive and rich collective of film industry professionals BAFTA are constantly striving to build and encourage a vital network of young people set on a career in film, TV or games.

We’ve written about their excellent BAFTA Guruinitiative in the past, and now we’re teaming up with them to bring you a Q&A with one of the stars of their #BreakthroughBrits program.

Twitter Q&A with Ray Panthaki – UPDATED with full transcript.

On Friday the 6th of November at 12pm we were at BAFTA HQ to put your questions to actor, producer and BAFTA #BreakthroughBrits honouree Ray Panthaki on all aspects of filmmaking.

Question on film preparation, working with limited budgets and securing new roles were all put to Ray, whose success is a testament to hard work and BAFTA finding the right people to shone their considerable spotlight on.

The eclectic nature of Linklater’s output is something the actor and producer is keen to emulate. Indeed the filmmakers whose work isn’t driven by genre or theme are sorely needed as pigeonholes expand and creativity is increasingly bound by expectation. To always be looking to improve, and try new things is a notion in the very DNA of BAFTA and their Guru offering.

On the subject of new roles Ray talked to us about his joy at his next job working with Hans Rosenfeldt, creator and writer of celebrated drama The Bridge. Marcella is his latest venture, ITV have signed up to produce the show in which the actor stars alongside Anna Friel and Laura Carmichael. The series is set to be a massive whodunnit with a multi-layered narrative with each character a potential witness, victim or perpetrator. Look out for that one next year.

That question drew the Q&A to a close. It was great to see the diverse range of questions sent in, and the very positive take on them; getting noticed is one thing, but it’s clearly nothing without very hard work.

His debut film as producer, Convenience, garnered extremely favorable reviews, and being associated with BAFTA, as well as his mentoring from Bond producer Barbara Broccoli OBE and BBC Films’ Christine Langan, was a crucial step up in his career. He talks about the experience below.

For all of the #BreakthroughBrits news follow the fine folks at @BAFTAGuru and be sure to check back next Tuesday, the 10th of November, for this year’s event.

What is #BreakthroughBrits?

Here are some of the judges of the Breakthrough Brits in association with Burberry to explain what this program is all about.

And you can sign up here to be the first to know about this year’s event.

If you’ve not seen Convenience yet, you need to get on that – we loved it. Here’s our interview with Ray about his debut film.

and delving back even further into the HeyUGuys archive we’ve got this gem – Ray at the premiere of Dan Turner’s The Man Inside way back in 2012.

Father and writer. In gutter, looking at stars.
Movie quotes I live my life by: 'Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while - you might miss it.' 'Carpe Diem!' 'When somebody asks you if you're a God - you say YES!'